Last Saturday dawned gloriously for the opening of the Minnie and Lovie Ward Recreation Center.
Congratulations to the Ward family for their hard work and dreams and to the many OMI residents who struggled against extra long delays and incompetent oversight.
The center is a symbol of a community coming up. It has a great child care room, kitchen, community space bedecked with the names of community leaders, and a brand new gym. The center will certainly make the summer safer for OMI youth and provide ample space that the community has sorely lacked.
It was a great honor to witness the many happy and proud faces at the opening.
5 comments:
Hi John,
I was collecting signatures for you on Thursday and, man, was it tough! I guess this is the reason no candidate for Supervisor has got on the ballot this way before ... and maybe it is telling you something.
As I was doing it, I couldn't help but be puzzled and disappointed by your logic. It seems that you and your supporters' valuable time and resources would be better devoted elsewhere (namely, phonebanking and events where people are most likely to want to know about you). You want to get elected, not be such a prude about every detail and egotistically being the most 'ethical' candidate at the cost of losing an election. While you are being egotistical and 'ethical', that Safai character is collecting money left and right. Who is the loser in this situation? You and, more importantly, the poor.
It is a valiant ideal to do things the hard way but it just seems counter-intuitive, wasteful, and is a depressing and energy-sapping affair for your supporters. They can only devote so much time and energy to your campaign so put it to damn good use and don't cheat them. Perhaps, supposing you get elected, you could create a law with a more realistic threshold. Say, 500 signatures. And you could make that a requisite. Until then, be honest with yourself and your volunteers.
But if you insist on foolishly collecting a whopping (and most likely impossible) 2000 signatures, I think that your ideas towards approaching signees should be different. I found the most effective skills of getting people to sign-on is to do the following:
1.) Body language: if people see you trolling after them, they feel extremely defensive and uncomfortable. It is invasive and off-putting. Lean against something, cross your legs, and just look like you are chilling.
2.) Eye contact: don't make eye-contact until they are close by. If they see you staring them down, they make a point of looking away and building up their defenses to quickly pass you by. Also, try to be behind something so they don't see you at a long distance.
3.) When they pass by, say: "Are you registered to vote in San Francisco?" If they don't stop, quickly say, "I'm not getting paid." That is always their first assumption and that is what really annoys them. When I did this, a good number of people actually looked back at me and turned around and came to me. Only at this point do you start with the talking points.
4.) Be brief: you don't want to beat them down with information and be an obnoxious, desperate motor-mouth. You want to get a lot of signatures in a short amount of time and to not waste their and, most importantly, your time. Keep it brief, pithy, and congenial.
Package your message. For example, especially with the black folk, say that "John is on the same slate as Obama" (I'm assuming that the DCCC is going to endorse you and Obama) Only hand them a flyer if they ask for it or they want more detailed info and proof. It saves time and they don't like getting talked to death.
Besides, if you actually start talking to them, you essentially have got their signature anyway and that's the bottom line. Plus, you save money on flyers which would otherwise be tossed out into the street when you can't see them anymore.
5.) Call them "Ma'am" or "Sir" -- especially to the younger people.
These approaches are efficient, time-saving, and effective.
However, I think the signature gathering process is really a waste of time, manpower, morale, and money. First thing is first: house parties and larger social events because that is where the money is and that's where word is spread to receptive ears and minds.
Matt -- it's best to email me directly at john@avalos08.com if you want to discuss strategy. We're actually doing really well on collecting signatures. Write me and I'll tell you how it's getting done.
Matt,
I'm going to remain anonymous here as I'm still hanging out in the closet.
First off -the 2,000 signature goal is signifigant because, if reach, it will be larger than any other candidate in D11 for this race and will send a strong statement to potential donors / supporters / media.
I could assure you that the other teams will not make this goal. Yes, they're starting to have "weekly" meetings and "gathering signatures" but I coulD assure you that most of the "volunteers" are just showing up to the meetings, eating food, and pretending to work after that. It's called being phony. And for some - it's just business.
2000 signatures will also show the level of support / enthusiasm that John has at this stage in the game, which will eventually translate into more voters/supporters early on.
Signatures of endorsers and ID'ing likely voters is going to be the name of this game.
No candidate has gotten on the ballot like this before because none of them have done the hard work of knocking on doors daily in order to get this done.
John Avalos knows this and is prepared to do just that.
Secondly - be careful of what you post as the other teams are reading.......
Hi John,
Thanks for the info. Please feel free to delete my previous post. Also, I hope that you weren't offended by my comments, as that was not my intention.
Hi Anonymous,
You make good points and I can see what you mean -- particularly about the Big Brother factor and the purpose of signature-gathering ... I have to ask (though, feel free to not answer): do you work within the Newsom administration?
170,000 plus for being the Director of Greening? I wish i worked for the Newsom Administration.
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